Tessera

It's in keeping for Trump not to pay what he owes others: "The $725m [the US will shortly pay] would be less than 20% of the more ‌than $4bn that the UN said in May ‌it was owed by the United States – though Washington has said that total figure is much lower and that it has made some payments."

Trump administration begins transfer of $725m to UN, amid billions owed

UN secretary general has said UN faces ‘imminent financial collapse’ due to unpaid contributions from member states

theguardian.com

Daniel Ahmad@zhugeex.com · 2mo ago

Wonder if Putin is kicking himself for not thinking of this strategy to replace his own soldiers being killed & wounded in his invasion of Ukraine.

US soldiers can play GTA VI for 4 days if they agree to reenlist for a minimum of two years and up to six years. Very normal country.

A good time to repost my earlier link to article about clueless generalist discount store cashing in on smart glasses without understanding the implications of tech. Selling cheap copycat tech for a quick $ is enabling cash-poor teens to emulate that other digital menace, toxic masculine influencers

Teen Boys Are Using Meta Glasses to Harass and Bully Girls at High Schools and Middle Schools

Teen boys are using Meta's AI glasses to harass and bully victims -- overwhelmingly girls -- at middle schools and high schools.

futurism.com

The problem with tech being so widespread & part of our everyday lives is generalist discount department stores like Kmart are increasingly wanting in on the action, but don't have the tech policy/governance expertise to understand societal & legal implications of selling smart devices like this.

Update 3: ITU sent discussion doc on possible options for ITU Plenipotentiary 2026 on Friday, when most of AP region was already finished work for the week, so AP region not only needs to be 2 places at once (APT mtg & extraordinary Council mtg, but now also 2 days behind RoW reviewing this doc.

[2]� Preparation for the 2026 Plenipotentiary Conference

itu.int

Update 2: the 25 August extraordinary ITU Council mtg to discuss Plenipotentiary security issues is at same time APT (38 countries) has Plenipot prep mtg in Brisbane, 24-28 August. You know, the other side of the planet to Geneva, where ITU Council members must be in person for any vote on Plenipot.

Applications for ICANN's 2nd round of new gTLDs closed 12 August. Two days before that, the USA's Texas State CIO pre-emptively wrote to ICANN to object to any application for a string associated with "Texas".

itp.cdn.icann.org

This will make the next UN Global Mechanism on cybersecurity session "fun". Particularly since Russia's already vetoed participation of many US-based tech companies for attributing cyberattacks to Russia. Just imagine how they'll react to being attacked by many of those same companies they vetoed!

Donald Trump empowers US private companies to conduct cyber-attacks

President signed memorandum giving private sector a role in fighting ‘transnational criminal organizations’

theguardian.com

Viewing IGF2026 proposals, name should be changed: Internet Governance Forum → AI Governance Forum Scope creep galore! Not to mention AI's already talked about in so many other (UN) forums. If ITU scope crept like this, there'd be an outcry. But somehow, IGFers think it's fine for IGF to do it.

Workshop Proposals 2026 | Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

intgovforum.org

Coming up at the UN: A Youth & AI Summit to mark International Youth Day, 12 August. Webcast on UN WebTV. Notably, it's organized by International Organization of Youth, without any co-involvement of ODET or ITU. Or even the IGF, which is increasingly pivoting to focus on AI.

Youth and AI Summit, August 12, 2026: International Youth Day

iycforyouth.org

Announced on social media, 5 Aug, but still not in IGF website news or anywhere in IGF 2026 set of web pages, 7-9 Sep 2nd Open Consultation & MAG mtg registration is now open. (One wonders why the website was upgraded, since this year, info goes to social media, with website a late afterthought.)

IGF 2026 2nd Open Consultations and MAG Meeting

Participants (both onsite and online) are required to create an account at this UN Accreditation System beforehand (if not owning one yet) and register electronically prior to the event. Technical sup...

indico.un.org

Governments keen to attract water & power hungry data centres need to remember that water & power access are increasingly a problem, in general, with extreme climate change. Do we really need AI in our lives & businesses so much that governments are willing to sacrifice power & water to our homes?

Romania blasts rock to divert water from drought-hit Danube to nuclear reactor

Hungary and Romania face energy crisis as record-low river levels force atomic power plants to reduce output

theguardian.com

I see Elon Musk's errant SpaceX rocket is on track to replicate the famous image from this silent movie. You know, he could have just used AI to do it instead, like he's threatened to do for his version of The Odyssey movie.

A Trip to the Moon - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Kmart sells out of low-cost rival to Meta camera glasses across Australia amid warnings of ‘privacy nightmare’

Expert says people face being filmed without their consent as $89 Anko smartglasses sell out in stores and online

theguardian.com

An update: Although the ITU Council webpage still says the circular letter to Council members about the extraordinary session to discuss Plenipotentiary 2026 security issues is yet to be published. It's actually available if you know where to look: www.itu.int/md/S26-DM-CI...

Looks like the UN Global Dialogue on Al Governance folks are over-relying on generative AI to be accurate when creating their own web pages: the 11th STI Forum was *this* year in May. The next Global Dialogue will be held before the *next* STI Forum, which will be the 12th iteration of the forum.

Screenshot of Global Dialogue on Al Governance homepage with wrong information:
"Save the Date: Global Dialogue on Al Governance 2027
The next Global Dialogue on Al Governance continues in New York from 3-4 May 2027, back-to-back with the 11th Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals."
(The meeting is actually back-to-back with the 12th Multi-stakeholder Forum )

[1006]� Convening of an Extraordinary session of the Council on preparations for the 2026 plenipotentiary conference - To Member States of ITU Council

itu.int

It's happened. The ITU Council 2026 has been called to discuss the venue of Plenipotentiary 2026, due to be held Doha, Qatar, 9-27 November. It's been one of those situations where nobody wanted to offend host Qatar or any of the warring parties causing the location of Plenipot to be under a cloud.

ITU COUNCIL
GENEVA 2026
Extraordinary session of the Council-26
The extraordinary session of the ITU Council 2026 will take place on 25
August 2026, from 1200 to 1500 hours (Geneva time), at the ITU Popov room.
It is open to Council Member States, Observer Member States, Resolution 99 (Palestine), the six Regional Telecommunication Organizations (CITEL, ATU, APT, LAS, RCC, CEPT), and the nine nominated Sector Members to C26

A US man once told me there were 2 types of Americans: those w passports & those w/o (those who've been outside US have a broader world view vs those who, well, don't) But that dichotomy's wrong. This slide was created by someone who'd been outside USA & still couldn't tell a map was utterly wrong!

US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference

State department ‘takes full responsibility’ for erroneous, widely shared chart displayed at Aids conference in Brazil

theguardian.com

Global Mechanism on ICT Security: it's worth noting the only Member State that mentions its head of state in the UN is USA. Everyone else refers to country name or a collective "we" to refer to its position, whereas USA, under current admin, repeatedly name checks Trump as source of its position.

UN Global Mechanism on ICT Security: it will surprise nobody that AI is being mentioned by a large number of Member States as one of the key emerging cybersecurity threats of concern. Threats to critical infrastructure are also of great concern.

Not yet published on the IGF website, but sent to the Dynamic Coalition Coordination mailing list 90 mins ago, there will be a webinar to help potential #IGF2026 workshop proposal authors: - 23 July, 13:00–14:00 UTC Reminder: deadline for workshop proposals is 31 July.

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: IGF 2026 Session Submissions Webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

intgovforum.zoom.us

1/ UN Global Mechanism on ICT Security: 90 mins into 1st session of 1st G-Mech plenary, States are still debating the vetoing of 50+ % of NGOs who applied to participate. Most States who've taken floor on issue have expressed deep concern, with a handful trying to see both sides of the issue.

1/ UN Global Mechanism on ICT Security: China believes the fact that some Member States state that the accreditation of NGOs process doesn't apply to Dedicated Thematic Groups (meaning the 50 vetoed NGOs could participate) raises red flags.

UN Global Mechanism on ICT Security, Russia responds to "unjustified attacks" against it: NGOs who participate in this group are supposed to objectively refrain from politicization. NGOs Russia objected to didn't meet this criteria as they make unfounded political attribution of computer attacks.